Page 24

24

Vincent

I was lucky she hadn’t turned a moment earlier, when I’d stumbled down the final step after catching sight of her.

She was picturesque, walking in the water; serene like a still pool but poised and confident like a wave crashing against the cliff.

This place, with Luna, was exactly what I wanted after the day I’d had.

Patricia couldn’t complain too much.

The weekly features summarizing prior recommendations were doing well.

Visitors were flocking to the taverns, the shops, and the restaurants we featured.

It was clear from her questions, though, that she wanted a yes or no on the Darius article soon.

I’d told her I’d have an answer before the end of the week—either way.

There was a part of me that felt like I was failing at this assignment.

It wasn’t a feeling I was used to.

My wind swept through my hair and circled my temples as if to remind me that wasn’t the case.

I wasn’t failing.

In this particular assignment, I was deciding something was more important.

Luna was more important .

My gaze returned to her as the water rocked against her ankles.

She belonged there.

I couldn’t explain it.

I’d thought that the night we met, too.

Not because of the magic she displayed but because of the resilience in her gaze.

The determination to hold on to the peace she sought, if only for another moment.

I saw it here again, and it knocked the wind from me.

More aptly, it set my wind loose.

It encircled her before I could tamp it down.

I was confident that bright red tinged my cheeks when she turned and acknowledged my presence.

At least she was smiling as we walked toward each other.

“Sorry,” she said when we met at the shoreline.

“I must have lost track of time.”

I shook my head.

“I should apologize to you.”

Her head tilted in question.

“My wind…” I coughed as it swirled her ankles again, where her skin met the water.

She appraised me with a gaze I wasn’t sure I could decipher.

“Your wind and I have an understanding that it seems you and I do not.” She placed her hands on her hips.

“Even though you and your wind are allegedly one in the same.” A smirk was firmly in place on her lips, and I knew my wind’s imposition was forgiven.

I didn’t have time to ask exactly what the understanding was before Evelyn and Ambrose charged down the steps.

“Any progress in our absence?” Ambrose called as they came toward us.

He had his quill poised to note anything she said in a small journal he was carrying for the occasion.

I glanced to the sky, wishing they would disappear for another few minutes.

Luna touched my arm, squeezing it gently before she went to greet them.

My gaze lingered on the spot, cursing my sleeves for existing.

It was warm today, and I’d left my jacket up at the inn when I’d gone to search for her on the property.

Whether I acknowledged the decision or not, I started rolling up the sleeves, exposing my forearms.

If she touched me again, I wanted to grant her direct access to my skin.

I was a goner.

“ No progress,” Luna said as she greeted Evelyn and Ambrose, “though I do remember finding the feeling of calm once before.”

“Feeling of calm?” Ambrose asked, pen poised to write.

Luna looked between the two of them.

Evelyn, too, gave her a blank stare.

She turned to me.

“My…Darius…when he came to test me as a child. He described finding my magic inside me as a sense of calm.”

I nodded, reassuring her.

“Everyone is taught a little differently—especially the first part. Most fae arrive at the court schools with the ability to call their magic, taught in some fashion by whoever raised them. The school is more about how to control the element long-term.”

“How were you taught?” she asked.

I cleared my throat.

“I’m not sure it?—”

“My parents called it a quiet place,” Ambrose jumped in.

I hoped Zrak, god of wind, blessed him for it.

He was one of my only friends who knew the lengths to which my parents had gone to ensure my magic was as powerful as they’d expected.

Granted, he’d also asked to study it after discovering their methods, but his heart was in the right place.

Luna’s bright blue eyes were still on me, even as Ambrose continued.

As much as I wanted her attention, I didn’t want it on this.

I wanted her magic to be a calm or quiet place.

Not the loud and angry pressure I had started with.

Sometimes, I wondered if it was why my magic was so expressive.

It blew through my hair at the thought.

“So, you did find the calm or the quiet place once?” I asked, steadying my voice .

“I think so, but I was too afraid that Darius would take me from my mom if I had magic.” She ran her hand through her hair and sighed.

“I didn’t know anything about him. My mom had only taught me to distrust the fae. It’s not a good reason, but it’s what I have. I went back to the house while they fought about my future. He didn’t return, and I only saw Darius at the inn after that, so Mom must have won.”

Evelyn must have known most of this because she nodded stoically at Luna’s words.

Ambrose stopped writing, thankfully.

And I…

well, I stared at her like an idiot, transfixed by the idea that her mom would have kept her from part of herself.

Luna hadn’t spoken much about her mom, but I understood they had had a good relationship before she passed.

I knew I shouldn’t judge, but it didn’t seem helpful if her mom had asked her to deny part of herself.

It was terrible that Darius had ignored her because she didn’t have magic.

It would be as bad if her mom had taught her to ignore her power or pretend it didn’t exist.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.

“Is there anything from that experience you want to try and recreate?”

She bit her lip.

“That’s what I was doing down here. When Darius tested me, I was standing in the water when I felt the calm. I did the same the night we met.” She gestured to her boots left on the beach.

“So I thought standing in the water might help.” She shrugged.

“No luck so far.”

“Do you want to keep trying down here? Or go back to the door?” Ambrose asked.

“I don’t think it’s worth going to the door until I know how to harness the magic, do you?” She looked at me.

I glanced helplessly at Ambrose.

“It’s hard to say not knowing what the magic’s intention is on the door.”

“Let’s give it a try,” she said.

“I’ve gone as far as possible with this assumption.” She gestured to the water.

“We might as well try something else. ”

“Alright.” I waited for her to step forward before starting up the stairs.

“You two go ahead,” she said.

“Evelyn and I will catch up.”

It hadn’t escaped my notice that Evelyn hadn’t spoken about her magic.

I had been too focused on Luna to consider what it meant.

Before I turned to go, I noticed Evelyn had a more fragile look on her face that made me wonder how long Luna had been trying to be rid of us.

“Do you know anything about Evelyn’s magic?” Ambrose asked quietly as we walked up the steps.

I shook my head.

“No. Aren’t you the one who works with her?”

Pink touched his cheeks.

“Yes, but that’s very much on the theory of magic and history. Nothing about our own. It’s in the Vesten Library. I doubt they’d be so progressive as to hire a non-Vesten, but I know nothing about her power.” He gave me a sideways glance.

“Speaking of, your magic is looking pretty familiar with Luna.”

My gaze darted to my feet.

“It’s good. I think. I’ve never seen it so familiar. So inquisitive?” He couldn’t seem to find the word he was looking for.

“I’m saying I’m happy for you. I was sure your parents’ methods of forcing it to show would have lasting impacts.”

I grunted in acknowledgment, certain that they had and that he observed the impacts.

“So, are you and Luna…” He didn’t fill in the ending, obviously hoping I would.

“I don’t know what Luna and I are,” I replied, running my hands through my hair.

“I told you we made this bargain.”

He clapped a hand on my back.

“It seems you’re well past that, though, aren’t you?”

I took a deep breath.

“I want to be, but the last time I tried to talk to her about it, she brushed me off.”

“She is taking you to a meal at her estranged father’s house. To celebrate her name day,” he said pointedly.

“I don’t think you’ve been ruled out entirely.”

I huffed out a laugh.

When he put it that way, it did sound like I had a chance.

“Thanks, Ambrose. Now, any idea what we will try when we get to the door?”

His lips pressed together in thought.

“I’ve always got theories to test. Not sure any of them will be useful, but we’ve got tests.”

“That’s definitely what I’m afraid of.”

“I can’t tell if her magic has a physical or mental block,” Ambrose continued.

“From what you two have said, she hasn’t been aware of the times she’s used it. Maybe the water has something to do with that, but still, she’s triggering it without thought.” He tilted his head as we walked through the trees.

“It seems she’s taken the calm thing to heart.” He sighed.

“But from what she said today, if her mom was against magic, it might be something she doesn’t want to access, subconsciously. Her mom is gone, right?”

I nodded.

“This could be lingering guilt over using what her human parent never wanted her to.”

I’d thought the same thing after hearing the story of her first magic test.

I couldn’t imagine a parent so adamant that their child not present magic.

In the fae courts, the strength of an element was everything.

It was so important that the strength of the element, not lineage, was how our rulers, the Compass Points, were determined.

“What is the physical, then?” I asked, wanting to get all the information I could from Ambrose.

“Well, it’s not uncommon for half-fae to have unique circumstances in which they access their magic. I met another Vesten who has a human parent, and he can access his fire all the time, but he can only shift when he sees the color black. I also met a Suden with a human parent who had to touch the earth with his hands to wield the element. That’s not a requirement for most Suden. They can access the magic without touch.”

“And you have no idea what unknown requirement Luna might have to meet?”

He considered it and shook his head.

“She would know better than I.”

She seemed on the right track with her feet in the water.

“Is there any limit to what the requirement could be?” I asked.

Sympathy covered Ambrose’s features.

“Not really. Usually, it has some significance to the wielder so that they can figure it out. The magic inside of us wants to be wielded. It wants to be at peace with its wielder. The requirements would be such that they wouldn’t tax the fae to complete them.”

I scratched my jaw in thought even as he changed the subject.

“Have you made any more progress on your research into Darius Pierce?”

We were approaching the inn, about to break through the tree cover.

“Not much,” I said.

“I’ve been hesitant to do anything else without Luna. I don’t want to feel like I’m sneaking behind her back to investigate her family.”

Ambrose laughed.

“You’ve got it bad.”

I swatted at him, even though I knew it was true.

“Didn’t she say she wanted to know?” he pressed.

“Yes,” I sighed.

“I just don’t know if she meant it. We’ll have to talk about it soon since we’re going to have a meal there next week. She said she’d help me sneak into his office while we were there. I don’t know what we’ll do if we find anything that says he’s bribing the governor.”

“You’ll have to trust she knows what she’s doing.” He patted my shoulder sympathetically.

“Are you so sure you’ll find something? ”

“I have no idea. I hope he isn’t doing this, especially since he wants to make amends with Luna, but…”

“But you know what it’s like to have parents obsessed with court tradition?”

I hung my head as we entered the inn.

“That I do.”